OSU Fans’ Silly Blunder Gives Steve Sarkisian Unexpected Advantage While Ryan Day Battles Biased Referees

Excitement and fervor are reciprocal to thinking straight. Especially in the context of sport. Have you ever made plans to play pick-up with some friends in the group chat and ended up heading to the wrong gym? Think we’ve all been there. Something similar transpired for fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes. On an entirely different magnitude. In a morbid, twisted way, Steve Sarkisian has become a beneficiary.

The Cotton Bowl between Ohio State and Texas stands on a bit of a weird keel. Played at Jerry World down in Arlington, it seems like Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns from Austin lucked into some very nice proximity advantage. The stadium is naturally expected to represent more burnt orange than scarlet. Conversely, the trip from Columbus, OH, is a bit longer. Well, it seems like it wasn’t long enough for a couple of Buckeye homers, who’ve managed to overshoot it! All the way to South Florida.

Over in Miami, the Orange Bowl was a movie. Notre Dame emerged triumphant in one of its not the best games in this iteration of the CFP. Ironically, a couple of Ohio State fans had tickets to this proverbial movie, too. Not out of a love for the sport or anything. They actually decided, and subsequently planned, to go to the Orange Bowl because the Buckeyes would be playing. A mishap for the ages, just because they “misread the bracket”. You read that right.

Penn State reporter Johnny McGonigal took to X and said, “Just ran into Ohio State fans in the hotel elevator. They misread the bracket and thought Ohio State would be playing in the Orange Bowl. They’ll be at Penn State-Notre Dame tonight.” Gotta give it to these fans for pulling up, assuming they knew they messed up at some juncture. McGonigal elaborated on the conversation he had with them.

“For those wondering, they looked like students,” he stated. “Said they misread the bracket. Didn’t say if they literally misread and booked or misread how it would play out, thinking OSU would play in the Orange Bowl, and booked weeks ago. Funny either way and stunned they didn’t sell.” Wish the internet would do its thing and find out who these fans actually were. They’ll probably be down at South Beach, thinking at least we got some respite from freezing Ohio. Hey, Steve Sarkisian wouldn’t mind any little help he can get. But Ryan Day and Co. just lost a sliver of support. With how things have shaped up on the officiating front, OSU fans are already reeling.

Steve Sarkisian will welcome more potential disruption to Ryan Day’s juggernaut

Begrudgingly, almost every good playoff game so far has been marred by a refereeing call or lack thereof. Before last night, the Texas-ASU Peach Bowl matchup spewed controversy after a missed holding call on Texas, which led to outrage against Steve Sarkisian. At the Orange Bowl, a head-scratching PI was called on an interception picked off in the endzone by Notre Dame. At least that one didn’t affect the result. Ryan Day needs to be wary of potential missteps by the crew at his game.

Remember the infamous ‘8-lateral’ play between Miami and Duke? That sequence is etched into CFB folklore for the wrong reasons. A Miami player was down well in advance and the game should’ve ceased, however they ended up taking it to the end zone instead. The officiating was so egregious that officials suspended the crew. This was only one of several instances. A decade on, Jerry Magallanes and his unit are going to be adjudicating the biggest game of the year. 

Naturally, the Buckeyes’ faithful are livid. Ryan Day has turned the tide since that Michigan loss, positioning Ohio State as a huge favorite to make the Natty. Vegas seems to agree, with them almost being a full touchdown favorite. The notion that a refereeing mistake can snowball into OSU losing all this momentum is not far-fetched. Let’s hope for a clean game decided by those not dressed in monochrome. As well as that the fans actually do reach the correct venue!